The February 27, 2018 priority preliminary arbitration award of
Ken Bialkowski in Aviva v. Intact involves an 18 year old,
unemployed passenger in an Aviva insured auto injured on February
3, 2016. The issue was if Aviva's late notice to Intact could
be cured. The merits would suggest the claimant resolved with
Aviva, at best, upon occupancy while at the next higher tier with
Intact upon dependency.
That the award was rendered in six days is, to my mind,
testament to the overarching principles at play despite that this
issue is said to largely be a fact driven analysis. Upon my first
run through of this case, and before I reached its conclusion, the
most recent of the two main authorities relied upon came to mind;
Justice Perell's December 10, 2007 judgment in Liberty v.
Zurich. Liberty had made extraordinary efforts to locate and
notify a respondent insurer but still gave late notice and fell
short at arbitration and on appeal. Ultimately, Liberty was found
to have
